College Baseball 360 Week-5 Composite National Rankings

For the second straight week, a team tumbled out of the top-10 of CB360’s exclusive Composite National Rankings. One week after Arkansas dropped from No. 2 to 19th in the CNR, Stanford plunged from 8th to 24th – after being swept at home by UNLV (which moved into the CB360 top-50, at #22). A second team took a big fall out of the CNR top-10, as previous #9 North Carolina State slipped down to 18th (after getting boatraced midweek by Elon and then dropping 2-of-3 vs. Clemson). front-page photo courtesy of Central Arkansas

The top-2 spots atop the CNR remain unchanged, with unbeaten North Carolina and Vanderbilt, while Oregon State also entered the week unbeaten and has bumped ahead of LSU into the No. 3 position. Stanford and NC State were joined by Mississippi State (#5 to #12) in dropping several spots while falling outside the CB360 top-10. The Bulldogs dropped 2-of-3 vs. visiting Central Arkansas, which jumped from 44th to 27th. Making that fall even worse, Mississippi State essentially was replaced in the top-10 by rival Ole Miss (up from 12th to 6th).

Current No. 5 South Carolina and (9) Kentucky each have moved up a spot within the CNR top-10, while UCLA slid for 7th to 8th. Unbeaten Florida State (#12 to #7) and Cal State Fullerton (#11 to #10) joined Mississippi in entering the top-10.

Indiana has climbed from 39th to 29th, after taking 2-of-3 at previous cb360 #30 Florida – while fellow Big Ten team Illinois rounds out the top-50, on the heels of its sweep at previous #48 Baylor.

Scroll down for more detailed info. on the most-recent CNR top-50 update – including the automated week-by-week chart that displays where each current top-50 CNR team has been ranked on a weekly basis in 2013.

The CNR formula currently comprises six elements (links to each at bottom of this page) and will expand throughout the season to include various RPI/statistical rankings, NCAA projections, etc. The six current elements include five polls/rankings, from the coaches (USA Today/ESPN), the writers (NCBWA), Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball magazine and Perfect Game, plus a small bonus for early-season RPI (per BoydsWorld.com).

The current CB360 top-10 features five teams from the SEC, two ACC, two Pac-12 and one Big West. When projecting the 16 #1 seeds in the NCAAs, based on the current CNR, there would be seven from the SEC, four Pac-12, three ACC, and one each from the Big West and BIG EAST.

Scroll down for the complete CB360 top-50, along with various breakdowns from this update. Information on the CNR formula is included at the bottom of this page.

COLLEGE BASEBALL 360 COMPOSITE TOP-50 (#5)(updated after week-4, through games on March 10, 2013)

Rank

Team

Pts

After Week-3

After Week-2

After Week-1

2013 Preseason

1

North Carolina

99.85

1

1

1

2

2

Vanderbilt

98.18

2

3

3

3

3

Oregon State

97.25

4

5

8

9

4

LSU

97.16

3

4

4

4

5

South Carolina

94.92

6

6

6

7

6

Mississippi

93.20

13

15

17

22

7

Florida State

92.59

12

13

14

15

8

UCLA

92.54

7

8

5

5

9

Kentucky

90.02

10

10

10

11

10

Cal State Fullerton

89.99

11

18

21

23

11

Georgia Tech

89.95

16

20

19

18

12

Mississippi State

88.96

5

9

12

13

13

Louisville

88.18

17

19

20

16

14

Oregon

84.43

14

7

7

8

15

Arizona State

84.39

21

26

30

27

16

Arkansas

83.93

19

2

2

1

17

Virginia

83.08

20

24

28

29

18

North Carolina State

81.95

9

12

11

10

19

Notre Dame

80.15

24

29

41

50

20

Oklahoma

79.70

15

16

18

17

21

Arizona

78.21

18

17

16

19

22

UNLV

74.97

–

–

–

–

23

Florida Gulf Coast

74.33

28

22

–

–

24

Stanford

73.48

8

11

9

6

25

Cal Poly

68.78

27

28

38

–

26

Rice

68.51

23

14

13

21

27

Central Arkansas

65.82

44

–

–

–

28

Clemson

62.97

31

27

29

28

29

Indiana

62.38

39

–

–

–

30

Oklahoma State

60.30

32

38

–

–

31

Miami

59.84

26

23

25

26

32

UC Irvine

59.63

22

21

22

30

33

Mercer

56.29

33

36

–

–

34

Louisiana-Lafayette

54.78

42

43

–

–

35

San Diego

53.93

36

–

33

20

36

Texas

53.91

35

25

27

24

37

Lamar

52.45

45

–

–

–

38

Furman

49.36

–

–

–

–

39

Texas A&M

48.69

40

37

26

25

40

Missouri State

48.29

34

35

49

35

41

Virginia Tech

48.19

25

31

31

45

42

Dartmouth

48.13

43

–

–

–

43

South Alabama

48.08

–

34

–

–

44

Houston

47.68

–

–

–

–

45

Florida

45.40

30

33

15

14

46

VCU

45.36

38

46

36

–

47

Austin Peay

44.85

–

–

–

–

48

Southeastern Louisiana

44.65

41

46

–

–

49

Connecticut

43.63

–

–

–

–

50

Illinois

43.60

–

–

–

–

**

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: As the season progresses, CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings formula ultimately becomes centered around upwards of 16 core ingredients – plus a bonus/penalty factor based on record over final-10 games. The CNR combines a diverse collection of “experts” (ranging from coaches, various media, computer calculations and postseason projections) – to help provide a preview of teams that could be in the running for the 2012 NCAA Championship field (hypothetically 50 teams, plus 14 others from lower-rated automatic-bid conferences).

Teams receive points based on their standings in each poll/rating/projection (60 pts for #1; 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB) and the various RPI-type ratings, the CNR adjusts to reward teams that have larger margins in the voting/point totals (whereas two teams with nearly the same voting-point total will be closer in the CNR allotment for that poll). Note that strength-of-schedule typically is factored into RPI formulations … thus the actual SOS numbers are used only early in the season (SOS are not used in the CNR when RPI already are in the mix). For the NCAA field projections, teams are awarded CNR points based on their respective seedings, “last in” and “last out,” etc.

The polls/ratings/projections are averaged, with 40 points typically then added to each total in order to yield the 100-point benchmark. Early in the season (projected SOS) and late in the season (final-10 games), a maximum bonus/penalty of 0.3 (SOS) or 0.5 points (final-10) is factored into the formula (in that case, 39.7 or 39.5, rather than 40, is added to the poll/rating/projection avg.).

For the current CNR formula, a slight bonus (max. +0.6 pts) was awarded based on early-season RPI (per BoydsWorld.com).